The present invention relates to IC test equipment, and more particularly to improvement in its arrangement for feeding IC elements to a testing station, sorting them according to their test results and receiving the sorted IC elements by corresponding magazines.
In this kind of IC test equipment heretofore employed, IC elements are usually equally oriented and aligned in a long and thin, square tube-like magazine. The magazine is manually placed at an IC element feed position for sequentially feeding the IC elements to the testing station, and after completion of the feeding of the IC elements, the magazine is manually unloaded to be replaced with another magazine fully loaded with IC elements. In some conventional equipment, magazines are automatically loaded and unloaded. In the latter case, according to the prior art, a plurality of magazines, each carrying IC elements, are stacked and the lowermost one of the stacked magazines is taken out and brought to the IC element feed position. In this instance, a relatively large amount of time is needed for taking out the lowermost magazine, limiting the feed rate of the IC elements to the testing station. With a view to testing a large number of IC elements as quickly as possible, it has been proposed to provide a plurality of test passages in the testing station so that IC elements are simultaneously tested in these passages. Even if the processing rate of the testing station is increased, however, the conventional automatic IC element loading station encounters such a problem that the supply of IC elements therefrom to the testing station cannot keep up with the processing by the latter.
In the IC element receiving station of the conventional test equipment, empty magazines are stacked in side-by-side relation to a non-defective IC element receiving magazine, and when the latter is loaded to full capacity with IC elements, it is automatically pushed up and the lowermost one of the stacked empty magazines is taken out and inserted under the fully loaded magazine. On the other hand, since the number of defective IC elements is extremely smaller than the number of non-defective elements, loading and unloading of a defective IC element receiving magazine are not automated, that is, when the operator notices that the magazine is fully loaded with defective IC elements, he manually replaces it with an empty magazine. The IC element receiving station of the conventional equipment is automated only partly, as described above, so the operator's manual operation is required. In the case of quickly testing a large number of IC elements, the defective IC element receiving magazine must also be replaced relatively frequently, increasing the burden on the operator.
It is necessary that each IC element guided on a rail from the sorting station be smoothly transferred to the IC element receiving station. Since IC elements appreciably differ in size according to their types, the guide rail has a plurality of grooves so as to guide any kinds of IC elements, but the IC element receiving magazine is replaced with another magazine of a different size for each kind of IC element. Accordingly, magazine guide means for positioning the magazine relative to the guide rail in the IC element receiving station have to be replaced according to the kind of IC element handled, that is, the size of the magazine. Therefore, the prior art requires the preparation of plural kinds of magazine guides and involves a cumbersome operation of replacing them according to the type of IC elements handled.
Also in the IC element loading station, in the case of automatically taking out stacked magazines one by one and loading them at the IC element feed position, magazine guides for positioning the stacked magazines must be exchanged for each kind of IC element.